NPR darling and best-selling humorist David Sedaris wrote The SantaLand Diaries in 1992, and that year the hilarious autobiographical account of working as a holiday elf at Macy's debuted on National Public Radio's Morning Edition.

NPR darling and best-selling humorist David Sedaris wrote The SantaLand Diaries in 1992, and that year the hilarious autobiographical account of working as a holiday elf at Macy’s debuted on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. The SantaLand Diaries has been staged sporadically ever since, including this holiday season, and was the recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor in 2001.

Vineyard Playhouse on Martha’s Vineyard was one of the venues staging The SantaLand Diaries this year, and The Martha’s Vineyard Times described the show as a “one-man, one-stop, hour-long theatrical marathon.” David Sedaris joined Santa’s crew at Macy’s at the ripe age of 38, when he moved to New York and was subsequently turned down a job by UPS. The SantaLand Diaries offers a behind-the-scenes look at everything from elf training to dealing with scared, bewildered children and overzealous parents. Crumpet the Elf even reveals that getting the job requires not one but two interviews, two psychology tests, elf classes, reading a 40-page manual, motivational exercises, study groups and even a urine test!

Although David Sedaris wrote The SantaLand Diaries, some fans want to see the author of Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and other collections of personal essays in the flesh. Luckily, fans can get David Sedaris tickets to see Sedaris on tour promoting his latest book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary. Sedaris’ seventh title for Little, Brown and Company, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk is a collection of animal-themed stories like “The Toad, the Turtle, and the Duck,” in which three animals strangers talk animal bureaucracy while waiting in a complaint line.

Sedaris’ next round of dates begins in March 2011, and will see him stopping in cities like Bethesda, Md.; Glenside, Pa.; Lansing, Mich.; Davenport, Iowa; Birmingham, Ill.; Gainesville, Fla.; Houston, Texas; Albuquerque, N.M.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; San Francisco, Calif.; Los Angeles, Calif.; Santa Barbara, Calif.; San Diego, Calif. and more through early May 2011.

Fans may want to bring some cash with them when they see Sedaris on his book tour, as The National Post reports that Sedaris has a tip jar on tour! Sedaris told The National Post’s Melissa Leong, “A couple of books ago, I put a tip jar on my signing table and I made over $4,000 on my tour. The problem was then I started hating people who didn’t tip me. I didn’t say anything to them, but I would just sit there thinking, ‘You cheap son of a bitch. I just signed four books and you can’t even give me a dollar?’”

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary has followed Sedaris’ other essay collections, like Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and novels like Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice, on the best-sellers list. Sedaris is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and has been included in The Best American Essays as well.